Ceiling or wall covering

ABSTRACT

A ceiling or wall covering comprising a plurality of rectangular panels that are suspended in supporting rails by means of locking members which are slidably received in undercut grooves in the rails and may be fixed in the desired position by being turned 90* around an axis that is perpendicular to the covering. Between each pair of sidewise adjoining panels a slot is left which gives access for a tool to displace and turn the locking members.

United States Patent 11 1 1111 3,890,753 Johansen June 24, 1975 [54] CEILING OR WALL COVERING 2,427,879 9/1947 Robertson et a1. .1 52/541 X 1 1 Inventor: a Skpubo 4 26 533313281 51322 $1TZ;;;;;III"""""' 11:311.??223353 Hlortesprmgparken, 2730 Herlev, 3,319,983 5/1967 Zibell 52/488 x 7 Denmark 3,436,108 4/1909 Van Buren, .lr. 52/760 Filed Mar 13 1973 3,478,480 11/1969 Swenson 52/714 X [21] Appl. No.: 340,724 Primary ExaminerFrank L. Abbott Assistant ExaminerCarl D. Friedman Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Stevens, Davis, Miller & [30] Forelgn Application Priority Data Mosher Mar. 22, 1972 Denmark 1332/72 [52] U.S. Cl. 52/500; 24/73 RM; 52/489 [57] ABSTRACT 51 1111.01 E04b 5/57 A cellmg or Wall Covermg compflsmg a Plurahty 0f [58] Field Of Search 52/498, 499, 500, 489, rectangular PanelS that are Suspended in Supporting 52/357 509 546 483 463, 512, 710, 714, rails by means of locking members which are slidably 21 760 358 355, 541, 488, received in undercut grooves in the rails and may be 24/221 R L, 221 A, 73 RM fixed in the desired position by being turned 90 around an axis that is perpendicular to the covering. [56] References Cited Between each pair of sidewise adjoining panels a slot is left which gives access for a tool to displace and UNITED STATES PATENTS turn the locking members. 1,934,760 11/1933 Awbrey 52/710 2,006,300 6/1935 Kinninger 52 710 X 4 Claims, 8 Drawlng Figures PATENTEDJUN24 1915 .753

m xx

FIG.

CEILING OR WALL COVERING means of locking members whose bodies are slidable in an undercut groove in the associated supporting rail and can be fixed in the latter by turning on an axis at right angles to the face of the ceiling or'wall ahd which are provided with at least one retaining wing for engaging with the adjoining edges of two adjacent panels.

An arrangement of this nature is known, for example, from US. Specification No. 3,405,493 which discloses a wall covering, primarily a rather heavy covering to form the playing surface of a sports hall, particularly intended for the game of squash. The lining units consist of heavy, horizontal wooden planks placed on edge and fastened by means of locking members to vertical supporting rails suitably anchored in the load-bearing wall. The lining is erected successively from the floor, commencing with a bottom plank which is fastened to the supporting rails by means of a locking member in each of the said rails. Each locking member is provided with a downward-pointing retaining wing which engages with a groove in the top edge of the plank and an upward-pointing wing which engages with a corresponding groove in the bottom edge of the following plank. The edges of the planks must rest against each other in order that the planks can combine to form a smooth and continuous surface.

In the case oflighter versions of ceilingor wall coverings there is often a desire for separate removal of individual lining units. Such a desire is not accommodated by the known structure mentioned above, since removal of the lining units would necessarily require to be conducted from the top downward, at any rate if it were wished to remove the units without damaging either them or the locking members.

The demand for simple removal and reassembly of the-lining units individually and in any order is satisfied by other existing ceiling and wall coverings but require either more laborious methods of fastening the lining units, e.g. screwing individually to the supporting rails, or a certain degree of flexibility in the lining units in order that they can be elastically deformed to be released from and reengaged with the supporting rails.

The ceiling or wall covering according to the inventiondiffers from the aforementioned, known structure in that the lining units are mutually separated by a space located opposite and parallel to a supporting rail and providing access for a tool such as a screwdriver to turn and slide the locking member or members in the groove of the supporting rail.

.Notwithstanding that the locking members in this case are immediately accessible for'adjustment, they can be virtually concealed in the said space and need not detract from the appearance of the covering. Moreover, flexibility in the lining units is unnecessary since it is not required that they be deformed in the process of erection. and removaL The Iin'in'g units can therefore consist of any common, inexpensive panelling material such as plasterboard, fibreboard or reinforced mineralwool boarding, which can be readily cut to the desired size by means of standard woodworking machines.

A lining unit can be erected on the prior suspended or installed supporting rails by positioning the unit against the rails in approximately the correct location after which the bodies of the necessary locking members are inserted into the grooves of the supporting rails outside the unit and then slid into the desired position. The retaining wing on the locking member can be engaged with the edge of the unit during the sliding action but the wings can alternatively be of such a size and design that they do not engage the unit until the locking member is turned into the final holding position. In the latter case it is also possible to fit the locking members without the aforesaid sliding action since they could be inserted in the supporting rail at the desired position by passing through the joint space and then turned into the final holding position.

The lining units can be mounted on the supporting rails quite independently of each other, each unit for example being retained by a locking member in the vicinity of each corner of the unit. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, however, two

locking members will be sufficient for each lining unit since the latter can be rectangular and in one pair of opposite edges have grooves to engage with the retaining wings of the locking members while the other pair of opposite edges is provided with opposing rabbets. In this case the lining unit is mounted by resting one of its rabbeted edges on the corresponding rabbeted edge of a previously mounted lining unit after which the unit to be mounted is fastened to the supporting rails by means of a locking member at each side in the vicinity of its other rabbeted edge. The latter rabbeted edge then serves to support one rabbeted edge of the following unit, etc. It is also possible in this case to remove and replace individual lining units since the locking members retaining the unit in the vicinity of one of its ends can be released from their holding positions and thereafter slid and turned for temporary retention of the adjacent unit whose end has hitherto been supported by the rabbeted edge of the first unit, which can now be removed. When the unit is replaced, the locking members are slid back into their original locations.

The bodies of the locking members and the surfaces of the groove of the supporting rails against which the bodies come to rest should preferably be bevelled in such a manner that the locking members are drawn into the groove when they are turned into their final holding positions. This arrangement ensures a particularly firm and stable retention of the lining units in order, for example, to eliminate any rattling noise. For the same purpose the retaining wings of the locking members according to the invention can be bevelled in such a manner that the lining units are urged toward the supporting rails when the locking members are turned into their final holding position.

The invention will now be more fully explained with reference to the accompanying drawings, where FIGS. 1 and 2 are vertical cross-sections through variously designed supporting rails and the edge areas of two lining units or panels suspended in the said rails,

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 show three different embodiments of a locking member,

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-section, parallel to a supporting rail, through a ceiling covering according to the invention, and

FIGS. 7 and 8 are illustrations of two further embodiments corresponding to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 the actual ceiling covering comprises a number of oblong rectangular panels I, e.g. made of plasterboard or fibreboard,

whose length is at right angles to the plane of the drawing. Between each pair of adjacent panels I a joint space or slot is left which is located directly under a supporting rail 2 which comprises a rolled or extruded metal section with a web 3 suspended by means of straps, not shown, from a load-bearing ceiling, and a lower groove portion 4 with downwardly converging walls 5 which in the embodiment illustrated are continued to form horizontal, outward-pointing flanges 6. Between the inner edges of these flanges a gap is provided of approximately the same width as the joint space between the panels 1.

To fasten the panels I to the supporting rail 2 there are a number of locking members, 7, 7 or 7" as shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. The locking member 7, FIG. 3, can be cast in a suitable plastics material and comprises an approximately circular retaining wing 8 and a head 9 which is joined to the wing 8 by a neck 10. The greatest cross-sectional dimension of the neck is less than the width of the aforesaid joint space or slot, and the same applies to the thickness of the head 9 in order that the latter can pass from underneath up into the groove portion 4 of the supporting rail and then be turned through approximately 90 to the final holding position shown in FIG. I. The turning action can be accomplished by means of a screwdriver which engages a slot, not visible, in the underside of the retaining wing 8. The thickness of the retaining wing is slightly less than the width of a pair of grooves, e.g. saw-kerfs l 1, cut in the facing edges of the panels 1.

Panels 1 are mounted by being held against the supporting rail 2, and the locking member 7 is inserted in the supporting rail at the ends of the panels and slid along to the desired position, the retaining wing 8 sliding into the groove 11. Once in the desired position the locking member 7 is turned as already explained thus securing it in its final holding position, since its shape and dimensions are predetermined in such a manner that the head 9 is drawn into the groove portion 4 in the turning process, thereby urging the retaining wing 8 upwardly toward the flanges 6 of the supporting rail.

In FIG. 2 the supporting rails 12 are of wood, which can be fastened by screws to a load-bearing ceiling I3. Otherwise the structure may be analogous to that shown in FIG. 1.

Locking member 7 in FIG. 4 has a shape similar to that of the locking member 7 in FIG. 3 but has been manufactured by punching and bending a piece of sheet metal. This produces two half" retaining wings 8 of which one can if necessary be omitted as shown in FIG. 5.

The panels 1 can be fastened to the supporting rails 2 by means of locking members 7 in the vicinity of each of the four corners of the panel but as illustrated in FIG. 6 the number of locking members can be reduced by half, if panels mounted end to end 1, l, 1', etc. have their ends rabbeted in an opposite and matching manner. The left-hand end of the panel 1 is fastened to the supporting rail 2 by means of a locking member 7 and the edge of the end is rabbeted to form a seat to receive the rabbeted right-hand end of the following panel 1' which similarly at its left-hand end supports the right-hand end of the panel 1". If it is necessary to remove the panel 1, its locking member 7a is released and slid to the left in supporting rail 2 where, in its new location, shown by broken line, it is turned and engages the right-hand end of the panel 1", holding this firmly in place and at the same time permitting the panel 1' to be disengaged from the panel l.

The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 7 corresponds largely to that shown in FIG. 2, except that the neck 10 of the locking member has been extended to permit the retaining wing 8 to seat against the underside of the panels 1 where it is concealed by a decorative strip 14 clipped in position.

In FIG. 8 the panels 1 comprise resilient mineralwool mats having desired thermal and acoustic insulation properties and stabilized by means of a metal framing 15 surrounding its edge. Apart from this the structure is analogous to that shown in FIG. 1.

What is claimed is:

l. A ceiling or wall covering comprising:

parallel supporting rails, an undercut groove in each rail,

a plurality of panels,

locking members, each of which has a body with at least one retaining wing for engaging adjoining edges of two adjacent panels, a head, and a neck portion, said panels being detachably fastened to said rails by said locking members, each of said bodies being turnable and slidable in the groove of an associated supporting rail, each of said bodies being fixed in its associated rail by turning said body about an axis at right angle to the face of the panel,

adjacent panels being separated by a space located directly adjacent and parallel to an associated supporting rail, each space providing access for a tool such as a screwdriver to turn and slide each of said locking members in the groove of its associated supporting rail, and

the greatest cross-sectional dimension of the neck portion of each locking member is less than the width of said space.

2. A ceiling or wall covering as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

- each of said panels is rectangular,

one pair of opposite edges of each panel have grooves to engage with the at least one retaining wing of an associated one of said locking members, and

the other pair of associated edges of each panel have opposing rabbets.

3. A ceiling or wall covering as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

the head of each locking member and the surface of each supporting rail groove are bevelled so that each locking member is drawn into the associated groove when it is turned.

4. A ceiling or wall covering as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

the head of each locking member is bevelled so that the panels are urged toward the supporting rails when the locking members are turned. 

1. A ceiling or wall covering comprising: parallel supporting rails, an undercut groove in each rail, a plurality of panels, locking members, each of which has a body with at least one retaining wing for engaging adjoining edges of two adjacent panels, a head, and a neck portion, said panels being detachably fastened to said rails by said locking members, each of said bodies being turnable and slidable in the groove of an associated supporting rail, each of said bodies being fixed in its associated rail by turning said body about an axis at right angle to the face of the panel, adjacent panels being separated by a space located directly adjacent and parallel to an associated supporting rail, each space providing access for a tool such as a screwdriver to turn and slide each of said locking members in the groove of its associated supporting rail, and the greatest cross-sectional dimension of the neck portion of each locking member is less than the width of said space.
 2. A ceiling or wall covering as claimed in claim 1 wherein: each of said panels is rectangular, one pair of opposite edges of each panel have grooves to engage with the at least one retaining wing of an associated one of said locking members, and the other pair of associated edges of each panel have opposing rabbets.
 3. A ceiling or wall covering as claimed in claim 1 wherein: the head of each locking member and the surface of each supporting rail groove are bevelled so that each locking member is drawn into the associated groove when it is turned.
 4. A ceiling or wall covering as claimed in claim 1 wherein: the head of each locking member is bevelled so that the panels are urged toward the supporting rails when the locking members are turned. 